InterDigital said the agreement will be critical for enabling 6G networks to scale and meet increased bandwidth and coverage demands
The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) has announced a research partnership with U.S. company InterDigital with the aim of developing 6G enabling technologies that impact future wireless standards.
As part of the partnership, InterDigital will sponsor research and innovation at IIT-K in advancing Extreme MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) systems to achieve higher spectrum efficiency and larger network coverage required for future 6G network deployments. The partners noted that these advancements are critical for enabling 6G networks to scale and meet increased bandwidth and coverage demands of advanced applications such as metaverse, holographic communications and digital twins.
Subramaniam Ganesh, director of the IIT Kanpur said: “The partnership comes at an opportune moment when India has released the Bharat 6G Vision Document and has laid the foundation to becoming a world leader in 6G technology and has launched the 6G R&D testbed. The academia has a major role to play both in terms of advanced research leading to 6G standardization as well as developing technology components of the 6G.”
The partners also noted that this partnership is aligned with the growing collaboration between India and the United States around 6G research and standardization and follows a joint statement between the two countries at the recently-concluded G20 summit.
“We are proud to formalize our partnership with IIT-K to explore and expand our expertise in the advanced technologies that will define our 6G future,” said Milind Kulkarni, VP and head of wireless labs at InterDigital. “Collaboration adds fuel to our innovation and InterDigital’s commitment to collaborating with world-leading universities and institutions across India will positively impact our shared contributions to wireless standards bodies like 3GPP and TSDSI.”
In July, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officially launched the Bharat 6G Alliance. At the time of the launch, the DoT stated the local 6G alliance will involve 75 companies.
The Indian government also said that the initiative will be a “collaborative platform” with the goal of achieving universal and affordable connectivity, promoting indigenous technology and establishing the country as a global leader in the telecom sector by supporting local development and deployment of as-yet-unstandardized 6G systems.
Earlier this month, ATIS’ Next G Alliance (NGA) and India’s Bharat 6G Alliance have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore collaboration opportunities on 6G wireless technologies.
The main aim of the collaboration is to align research and development priorities that support a “common 6G vision” and to create secure and trusted telecommunications as well as resilient supply chains, the partners said.
